Six Building Blocks | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality

Six Building Blocks | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality

AHRQ Releases New Opioid Management Toolkit for Primary Care Providers

AHRQ has released a new toolkit to support a structured, team-based approach to improving the management of patients who take opioids to ease chronic pain. The majority of patients taking opioids for chronic pain are managed by primary care providers and their staff. The Six Building Blocks toolkit supports improvement in six areas: leadership and consensus; policies, patient agreements and workflows; tracking and monitoring patient care; planned, patient-centered visits; caring for complex patients; and measuring success. The website was developed as part of a collaboration among AHRQ, the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Six Building Blocks

A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care

Most patients taking opioids for chronic pain are managed by primary care providers and their staff. Many practices are looking for help in managing their patients using chronic opioid therapy. To meet this need, AHRQ funded the Six Building Blocks project  through grant number R18HS0237850. Additional funding was provided by Washington State Department of Health subcontract (HED23124) of Cooperative U17CE002734, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Six Building Blocks  website is for people interested in improving the care of patients using chronic opioid therapy, such as:

• Clinicians and staff,
• Quality improvement personnel,
• Practice coaches, and
• Clinic administrators.

The website provides a structured systems-based approach for improving management of patients on chronic opioid therapy, called the Six Building Blocks :

• Demonstrate leadership support and develop consensus.
• Revise and implement policies, patient agreements, and workflows.
• Proactively track and monitor patient care.
• Implement planned, patient-centered visits.
• Develop resources to care for complex patients.
• Measure implementation success.

Additional tools include a self-assessment, an implementation guide (Figure 1), and links to helpful resources.

Figure 1. Excerpt from implementation guide

Page last reviewed July 2018
Page originally created July 2018

Internet Citation: Six Building Blocks. Content last reviewed July 2018. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/prevention-chronic-care/improve/six-building-blocks.html